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St. Johns County unemployment rate at 5.6 percent

St. Johns County’s unemployment rate for July remained steady at 5.6 percent and is among the lowest in Florida, according to a release Friday from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

The local rate is down 1.5 percent from July 2012 while the total labor force increased by about 2,000. Only four other counties in the state had lower unemployment rates than St. Johns County last month.

Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.1 percent in July 2013, holding steady over the month, but it was down 1.6 percentage points from a year ago.

The state’s May, June, and July rates were the lowest since September 2008 when it was 7 percent. There were 665,000 jobless Floridians out of a labor force of 9,404,000.

Flagler and Putnam counties, which border St. Johns, continued to have some of the highest jobless rates in the state. Flagler was tied for the second-highest rate at 10.4 percent. Putnam is No. 4 at 10 percent. Putnam’s rate is still down more than 2 percent from a year ago.

Meanwhile, Duval County had a July rate of 7.6 percent, which was the same as June. It was an improvement of 2 percent from July 2012.

The U.S. July unemployment rate was 7.4 percent. Florida’s unemployment rate was below the national rate for the fifth consecutive month.

Florida’s seasonally adjusted total nonagricultural employment was 7,549,600 in July 2013, an increase of 27,600 jobs (+0.4 percent) over the month. The number of jobs in the state was up 143,700 from July a year ago, an increase of 1.9 percent. Nationally, the number of jobs also was up 1.7 percent over the year.